Discovering the Past

“You want something to drink?” He asked me as We enter the apartment.
“No I’m fine, thanks.”
He went to his room.

The place was amazing, a big apartment with Nice and expensive furniture. Lots of pictures. T
here was one of Michael’s parents when they were younger and one of Gerard, also younger, but most of them were of Michael when he was little.
He came back with a little box, “Here.”

We sat on the living room couch. Michael sat next to me and opened the box.
The box was full of pictures, tickets of concerts and a big envelope.
“Here, the postcard Frank sent to Uncle Gee.”
“Cool,” I touched the envelope he gave me.

Slowly I opened it and took out lots of postcards. Some of them had Christmas pictures, others had places.

New York.
New Jersey.
Japan.
London.
Berlin.

“You can have it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, sure,” He stood up and went to the kitchen. “So is pizza okay for lunch?”
“Yeah sure,” I think he said something about pizza, I was so interested in the postcards. I ran my fingertips over Frank’s handwriting.

Dear Gerard:
I know you don’t want me in your life anymore; but I couldn’t help see this postcard and think of you. Remember how you loved Christmas?
I’m living with my mom in NJ, so this Christmas won’t be sad, considering.
How you doing?
Have you talked with any of the guys? I heard Toro is going to open a Guitar School. That´s freakin’ awesome.
I miss you and Mikey, I miss everything.
Have a beautiful Christmas!
Ps: I’m sending a little toy for Mikey’s kid.
Love, Frank.

“He sent you a present?” I raised my voice so he could hear me in the kitchen.
“Oh Yeah, I forgot. He sent me presents always.”
“Nice.”
I wonder what kind of present Frank would buy me? Vampire doll? who knows.
I took out another one.

Dear G:
You didn’t reply last year. Maybe your postcard got lost in the mail. I’ve moved to New York. Are you still in town?
Maybe we can meet? If you want to.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Send love to Mikey and Alicia.
Love,
Frank

Dear Gerard:
So it’s obvious that you don’t want to see me. It’s okay, I guess.
I’m fine by the way.
I decided to spend the holidays in Japan. I opened a Skeleton Crew store here and it’s doing pretty good.
Write me. Please?
Love to the family,
Frank

Hi G:
Merry Christmas!
I’m in London. X_X
It’s freakin’ cold here.
The other day a girl came to me and recognized me, she said we should get back together, the band I mean.
I felt very sad to think that is not going to happen.
I’m sad to think that you hate me this much. Or even worse that you don’t hate at all.
That you just erase me from your memories. Anyway…
Merry Christmas.
Frank

Merry Christmas Gerard.
I’m living in Berlin.
I fucking hate it here, too much cold and the people are so weird,
I guess I’ll move again. I got bored easily, that’s why I move around a lot.
I’m tired of…a lot of things, of being alone. But I know you don’t care about that.
Do you even read this?
How can you just forget 8 years of friendship, of brotherhood?????
Take care.
I won’t bother anymore with these stupid postcards.
I love you,
Frank

I felt a tear coming down my check.
Stupid Gerard.
I wanted to met this guy and punched him in the face.
“Are you okay?” I clean the tear. Michael was in the kitchen heating up some pizza.
“Coke is fine?”
“Yeah.”

We were eating. Talking about music and random stuff.
“What’s Skeleton Crew?”
He made a strange face.
“In one of the postcards Frank says something about a Skeleton Crew store”
“I don’t know either…..I think it’s some business he had or has. Don´t know for sure.”
“So tomorrow, will you see Gerard?”
“Yep”, He took a sip of this Coke and fixed his glasses.
“I can pick you up from your house, if you want to.” He looked at his pizza, avoiding eye contact.
“Oh” I looked at my pizza too.
“If you want to...”
“No, it’s fine. I´ll give you my address.”
“Cool” He smiled at me